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Dysesthesia

Dysesthesia is an unpleasant, abnormal or unfamiliar, sensation, often with a burning and/or "electrical" quality. Some authorities reserve the term for provoked positive sensory phenomena, as opposed to spontaneous sensations (paresthesia). Dysesthesia differs from paresthesia in its unpleasant quality, but may overlap in some respects with allodynia, hyperalgesia and hyperpathia (the latter phenomena are provoked by stimuli, either nonnoxious or noxious).

There are many causes of dysesthesia, both peripheral (including small fibre neuropathies, neuroma, nerve trauma) and central (e.g., spinal multiple sclerosis). Dysesthetic sensations may be helped by agents, such as carbamazepine, amitriptyline, gabapentin and pregabalin.